I’ve always been a “lurker” on all platforms and communities because when I do have a question or would like to contribute my first thought has become:
Actually, let me google it first
In which case I’ll usually have some answer. Usually it isn’t a complete answer but enough for me to not want to share my question anymore.
Maybe. It does bother me when I see people complain about posts where the person asks a really basic question and someone gives a few words in snide response like, “Google much?” and don’t actually answer the question. At the same time, some questions being asked could honestly be answered with a simple Google search, I just don’t know what the cutoff is. Sometimes you can get better responses in the comments than you would with a Google search, or the Google searches themselves will just turn up Reddit comments where somebody else asked the same question once upon a time. I think it does help to refresh the information sometimes, rather than just relying on Google Searches for information, sometimes you get actual real-world experts chiming in like, “Yeah, everybody thinks it’s A, but actually it’s B because of X, Y, and Z, it’s a common mistake that alot of people make.” So I’ll usually err on the side of just let ask whatever they want to, no matter how basic a question.
Many times Google has led me on a wild goose chase, sending me to thread after thread where the only answers are “just Google it durrr”. Google results are not stable. If you have time to post a snarky comment and it’s so easy to Google, then why not Google it and include a link with your snark?
Also, Google (and web search in general) has generally gone down the crapper over the last 5-10 years. SEO is practically a solved problem, but it’s mostly bad actors who benefit from it. Google doesn’t seem to care to play the cat-and-mouse game anymore.
Hence one reason why I pay for Kagi